Recent Articles

AP Photo/Amy Sancetta No Sunday Picnic: Members of Applewood Creek Girl Scout troop leaving the Allen Correctional Institution in Lima, Ohio, after visiting their fathers in prison. This article appears in the Spring 2017 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here . T he United States’ criminal justice system incarcerates at a rate that is unmatched in the modern world. There are today approximately 700 prisoners per 100,000 residents. The former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan follows, with 600 prisoners per 100,000 residents. South Africa, with its history of racial hierarchy, imprisons 300. Canada’s rate is about 100. The American incarceration rate wasn’t always this high. In the early 1970s, the rate was less than 170. Since then, it has grotesquely ballooned. Black parents, especially black fathers, are incarcerated at an exceptionally high rate. For every 100,000 black men, more than 2,700 are imprisoned. Excessive sentencing for minor crimes and our racially...